Barry Dittman examines grapes growing in his 1-acre vineyard on the south edge of Hinton. He and his wife Brenda are planning to open a winery this fall. The Dittmers grow seven varieties of grapes for wine. Four are red: Foch, Landot, Concord and Frontenac; and the other three are white: Esprit, Lacrosse and Niagra, a type of grapes many grocery store juices are made from. [Click to enlarge]

Napa Valley.

Hinton?

If Barry and Brenda Dittmer have their way, yes -- their sloping vineyard on a Plymouth County hillside will be not only an agricultural plot but a destination winery.

An Iowa winery isn't as surprising as people think, Barry pointed out.

"In the 1920s or 1930s, Iowa was fourth or fifth in the nation for grape growing," he said, stepping out of their hilltop home.

To the north, Le Mars is just visible, about 12 miles away. To the south, bushy lines of grape vines stretch along the green ridge.

The acre of vines they planted five years ago are now ready to produce in full force. They have seven varieties, all intended for wine-making.

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"If all goes well, we'll have four or five tons of grapes this harvest," Barry said, walking toward the vineyard. "We should have enough grapes to make 3,000 bottles of wine."

Beyond that, they hope to open their Tucker Hill Vineyard winery in late fall, offering wine-tasting and selling bottles of their own wine.

It hasn't been an easy road.

They decided to raise grapes almost by accident, Barry said.

"We bought the land and knew we didn't have the equipment to farm traditional crops," Brenda said. "But we wanted to put in something to earn some money off the land."

Barry read an article about a vineyard in Nebraska. Then the parents of three, who both also work at Weinrich Trucking in Hinton, decided to give it a shot.

"Did some people think we were crazy? Yes," Barry laughed. "Some still do."

After research and vineyard visits, the Dittmers' first 400 vines arrived by mail from New York in a burlap bundle.

It was time to hit the dirt, literally.

Everything at the Dittmers' vineyard -- planting, tending, spraying, harvesting, crushing and wine making -- is done by hand.

"Grapes are very labor intensive," Brenda said.

The Dittmers planted each vine (about 18 inches of root and 12 inches of vine) in a hole dug with a hand-operated augur.

"The hillside is good for air flow and water drainage," Barry noted. "You don't want a lot of moisture sitting on grapes or they will mold."

He sprays weekly to keep disease away and ties branches to wires to help support the growing fruit's weight.

"It takes most of our free time," Barry said, walking through the vineyard.

The Dittmers had to wait through the first three years when grape vines don't produce a substantial harvest.

Finally, the year came when the crop was looking good. Barry was letting them ripen, waiting until the brix - or sugar level - was high enough before he picked them. Unripe, they taste tart as crab apples.

But the birds got to the grapes first.

"They were gone. Every grapevine was picked clear of fruit," Brenda said. "It was devastating."

But the Dittmers moved on, learning to use nets to protect the grapes.

"It's the school of hard knocks," Barry said.

This year's crop is looking good, and soon the purple and blue grapes, which are all green now, will start taking their darker hues.

When the grapes are ripe, the Dittmers call up their family and friends to help with the harvest. They clip the bunches off into buckets, then take them to the new winery they built near their home. Grapes run through a crusher/de-stemmer and come out as a juicy pulp.

For white wine, green grape pulp is crushed further, separating the juice from the "cake." The Dittmers add a yeast to the juice to ferment, consuming the sugar and changing it to alcohol

For red wine, the purple grapes stay with their skins during fermentation.

"That gives reds their flavor and deep color," Brenda explained.

Variables determine the wine's exact flavor, Barry said.

"It's in your grapes, the way you let it press, the length of fermentation," Brenda said. "That's why you can order the same wine at two different wineries and it will taste different."

Although they own a vineyard, the Dittmers are not wine snobs.

Brenda said she could count the number of glasses of wine she'd had before they started growing grapes.

With a winery in the works, she and Barry have traveled around the region to sample others' wines including a pumpkin spice wine and a chocolate wine.

"That's the fun part," Barry said. "We're learning. We're not experts yet, but practicing is fun."

In general, he said, people start with sweeter wines like a White Zinfandel. Then they graduate to dryer whites, like a Chardonnay, then to the dark dry reds like Cabernet Sauvignon.

"I like white, and he likes red," Brenda laughed.

Iowa now has several wineries, they noted.

"Don't be afraid to try local wines -- the majority of Iowa wineries are committed to just using Iowa grapes," Barry said.

That's their plan for their winery.

In the future, people will be able to come out to Tucker Hill Vineyard on the southern edge of Hinton, taste wines and even buy a bottle to share with friends around a table and enjoy the view.

The Dittmers have dreams of adding more vines, expanding their winery production and even adding a scenic pond.

With a lot of work behind them, and even more ahead, the couple seems optimistic that wineries, like wine, get better with age.

"We're gaining a little bit at a time," Brenda said.

Her husband grinned.

"Cheers," he said